When might Debunking be Effective in Communications Aimed at Countering Vaccine Misinformation

Debunk, Inform or Avoid? – When might Debunking be Effective in Communications Aimed at Countering Vaccine-related Misinformation?

Thursday 15 December 2022 (2:30pm – 4pm GMT)

During the pandemic, public health communicators faced a common challenge. How to ensure the spread of vaccine-related misinformation did not impede the vaccine roll-out and risk lives?

Largely, they relied on messages that aimed to foreground accurate information about vaccines in the minds of the public. Trusted ‘messengers’ were often called upon to deliver these messages, which were also carefully tailored to address the specific needs and concerns of local people and communities who were hesitant about vaccination.

Messages aimed at debunking, or myth-busting, misinformation about vaccines were rarely used, in line with government guidelines. Public health communicators had often considered debunking but usually decided against, due to uncertainty about when this might end up doing more harm than good.

Since July 2022, IPPO has been developing a rapid evidence review that will look at when debunking misinformation about vaccines is likely to be a better option than either providing accurate information only, or not responding, for:

• Reducing people’s vaccine-related misinformation beliefs, or vaccine hesitancy.
• Changing people’s attitudes to vaccines; and/or
• Increasing people’s intentions to be vaccinated, or vaccine uptake?